Agatha Christie’s Poirot Meets Murder, She Wrote In An 18-Part Mystery Masterpiece

Published Sep 4, 2026, 9:00 PM EDT

After 18 months at Screen Rant, Guy became Classic TV Editor in September 2026, and specializes in leading features content about shows from decades gone by. Having written for and editing several TV, film and music publications, his areas of expertise include comedy and satire, animation, crime drama, Westerns, and political thrillers.

There are plenty of hidden TV gems to be discovered on PBS, but none is more deserving of the attention it isn’t getting than an ongoing 18-part murder mystery series indirectly inspired by the works of Agatha Christie. Set partially in a remote English village, the show plays like a puzzle to be solved, enveloped within an ingenious meta conceit.

With a protagonist who seems like the kindred spirit of Jessica Fletcher from Murder, She Wrote, this series is steeped in the traditions of its genre. Indeed, author Anthony Horowitz, whose books are the source material for Magpie Murders and its Susan Ryeland sequels, has openly characterized the franchise as a love letter to classic literary whodunits.

Whilst its first two installments are already available on PBS in the United States, the adaptation of Horowitz’s third and final novel featuring Ryeland is arriving on the first Sunday of September. Marble Hall Murders is unquestionably one of the most exciting new British TV releases of 2026, especially for those in search of a good mystery.

In fact, the more devoted you are to the murder mystery genre, the more you’ll enjoy the Magpie Murders franchise. This detective show isn’t just like Agatha Christie. It’s about Agatha Christie, from its affectionate pastiche of her characters and settings, to its literary framing device, which effectively turns Lesley Manville into the new Angela Lansbury.

The Magpie Murders Franchise Returns With Marble Hall Murders On September 6

Credit: BBC/PBS

Months after a movie adaptation of Murder, She Wrote found its director, the British equivalent to Jessica Fletcher is returning to the small screen for one last mystery. Marble Hall Murders marks the final time we’ll see book editor Susan Ryeland working her way through an Atticus Pünd story to solve a murder in her own world.

Just like Magpie Murders and its sequel Moonflower Murders, this installment of the franchise will have six 45-minute episodes, centering on Ryeland’s amateur detective work on a case mysteriously connected to the crime fiction series she’s spent her publishing career editing. The sleuth will be played by Manville once more, and Tim McMullan will return as Atticus Pünd.

This time, Pünd’s story-within-a-story takes place somewhere exotic in the Mediterranean, although the author writing it, Eliot Crace, can’t seem to decide whether the exact location is in the south of France or on the Greek island Corfu. Meanwhile, Ryeland herself has to contend with Crace’s aristocratic English family, which is beset by infighting.

Marble Hall Murders will see Manville and McMullan joined by a new supporting cast, including Jamie Blackley as Eliot, and Patricia Hodge and Mark Bonnar as other members of the Crace family. The show premieres on PBS in the United States, and BBC One in the UK, on Sunday, September 6.

Magpie Murders Feels Like Poirot Crossed With Murder, She Wrote

It’s no wonder Magpie Murders has received praise from the great Stephen King. This is a mystery franchise of the highest order, which expertly leans into its homage of Agatha Christie classics, as King points out. The Atticus Pünd novel series that Susan Ryeland spends the show editing is clearly a pastiche of Christie’s Hercule Poirot stories.

What’s more, Ryeland herself shares some of Miss Marple’s key traits, as an unmarried woman in late middle age who likes to watch people closely and gets drawn into detective work reluctantly. Ultimately, though, it’s Murder, She Wrote’s Jessica Fletcher that she’s most similar to.

Title	Novel Release	TV Show
Magpie Murders	2016	2022
Moonflower Murders	2020	2024
Marble Hall Murders	2025	2026

Fletcher is another murder-mystery protagonist inspired by Marple, who’s part of the same world of literary crime fiction as Ryeland. Both the Magpie Murders franchise and Murder, She Wrote use this world as a framing device for the sleuth work Fletcher and Ryeland undertake in their own lives. However, Anthony Horowitz’s franchise takes this clever conceit much further.